James Rood, Client Infrastructure Support Manager, gives us his take on the changing world of Technology.

Today I’m going to give my own view on how technology has changed over the past 10 years.

Now, 10 years ago I was 14. We had a computer running Windows XP, I had some brick of a mobile phone and I was probably still on dial-up internet (we were very late to the broadband party, blame BT for alienating us with terrible (and by terrible I mean inoperable) internet for 6 months). The thought of transferring data between my devices or downloading large volumes of data was laughable. I downloaded Trackmania once (a racing game). It was 2GB in size. It took 27 hours, my dad loved me leaving the computer on for that long, because god forbid that the internet dropped, I would have to start over! I hope no one tried to call our landline…Where was I? Oh yes, my point is that the idea of everything talking to everything was completely ‘out there’, and that was only 10 years ago! Now, I sign into my Google account on my Android phone (other phones are available) and boom, all my emails, bookmarks, history that were all on my computer, are right there on my phone! What’s that? All my photos too?! What is this magic? The idea of having this much information spread across multiple devices 10 years ago was but a dream, but with the power of high speed internet, cloud platforms and high powered mobile devices, we’re there.

Phones have changed a lot. 10 years ago they were simply what they are called, Mobile Telephones. You called from them, you sent text messages, maybe the occasional email. Now, they’re complete computers running what is almost a desktop operating system. With my phone for example, I can connect a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to and control it like a PC. Microsoft have recently released their Microsoft Display Dock, this connects to your Windows phone, and allows you to plug in a monitor, mouse and keyboard and quite literally use it as a PC! Yes, there’s some caveats but comparing that to the mobiles of 10 years ago it’s unreal! In 2007 we had the iPhone explosion. Apple completely re-imagined the mobile device space, bringing in the era of the smartphone. Since then, there’s been an ongoing war between Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, with Microsoft occasionally kicking someone in the shin and then running off to the corner again. We’ve also seen the wide adoption of the ‘Tablet’ computer. Whilst certainly not the first ‘Tablet’, Apple seemed to start this trend with the iPad, which was a nice compliment to the iPhone. Since then Tablets have evolved and become much more powerful, some even as powerful as their desktop counterparts, and are widely found in both the home and the business.

It also feels like technology is appearing everywhere. If I told my dad he would be speaking to his TV to change the channel, he would have said I was ridiculous (and yes you can do this now, but it’s still ridiculous, just use the remote) and now TV’s have become more than just watching TV, you can browse the internet on them, you can make video calls on them and more! This is another example of devices becoming more like computers. Technology is popping up everywhere. Smartwatches! It’s a watch, yet someone made it ‘Smart’ so now we have computers on our wrists too. What next, the SmartShirt? Hah……wait, they exist? SmartShirts monitor heart rate, breathing depth, balance…oh my word…See, popping up everywhere. I’ll try again. What next, the SmartToothbrush? Hah……wait, really? COME ON!

Overall, technology has become much more connected, more widespread and much more powerful. I’m now off to download Trackmania in 2 minutes, and teach my Dad how to call me from his fridge (I joke, but they do exist…)

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